Over at Cannes Oliver Stone revealed the opening twenty minutes of his new movie World Trade Center, and the response is extremely positive. This is surprising, one because it's Stone, and two because the opening twenty minutes is the recreation of the two Police Officers attending the recently struck Twin Towers.

Over at Jo Blo the big man himself (that's Jo by the way) has written up exactly what happens as it happens, and reflects on his personal view of what the film could be.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to see this movie before this screening, but when the 20 minutes were over, I really wanted to see the rest of it and not from a voyeuristic point of view, but because I believed that the story -- which in the case of the two officers, provides a "happy ending" -- would be somewhat required for myself, as a small, yet hopefully significant step into seeing some ray of light come out of that day so very dark. It will obviously be a personal decision that everyone would need to make for themselves, much like for UNITED 93.

You should head over there and check out his excellent descriptive account of the first twenty minutes of the film. If I were to attempt a quote from it I wouldn't do it justice, or it would appear sensationalising. So go over and read the full account, and then come back to post your comments so we can have a discussion about it.

I'm surprised that Stone has managed to make this so well, and I'm hoping the rest of the movie continues in that vein, even with Cage in the leading role it might just turn out well. Interestingly Stone has this to say about his career:

He re-iterated that as with films like PLATOON and now WTC, he simply wants to tell stories of people's collective truth, so that they can be marked for history.

I'd welcome more of that. Talking of Platoon he also mentions that we're likely to see a fully restored original cut of Platoon. Now that would be something to see as well. Back to World Trade Center. What do you feel after reading those twenty minutes introduction?